In general, sounds can be monophonic or polyphonic. Monophonic sounds emanate from a single voice. Examples of instruments that produce a monophonic sound are a singer's voice, a clarinet, and a trumpet. Polyphonic sounds emanate from groups of voices. For example, a guitar can create a polyphonic sound if a player excites multiple strings to form a chord. Other examples of instruments that can create a polyphonic sound include a chorus of singers, or a quartet of stringed instruments.
Digital audio workstations (DAWs) can provide a vast array of processes for altering audio streams. Different processes can be best suited for different types of audio streams. For example, a polyphonic time-stretching algorithm can provide the best results for a polyphonic audio stream while a monophonic time-stretching algorithm can provide the best results for a monophonic audio stream. In these examples, a user must know whether a given audio stream is monophonic or polyphonic and then manually apply the appropriate algorithm to achieve the best results. Or alternatively, a user can simply randomly choose algorithms to apply and tinker until they hear desired results.
However, current methods do not determine whether an audio stream is monophonic or polyphonic and then automatically apply an appropriate process to the audio stream based on the determination. Therefore, users, particularly novice users, could benefit from an improved method and system for determining whether an audio stream is polyphonic or monophonic and automatically applying an appropriate process to the audio stream based on this determination.